As “The Walking Dead” kicks off its eighth season Sunday night, the actor who plays supervillain Negan vows there will be even more reasons to hate his character.

Because after a season in which hero Rick Grimes’ dwindling pack of survivors had been tormented by Negan’s Saviors, they’re finally fighting back.

“There’s a lot of blood this year,” Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who brings Negan to life, tells the Daily News. “It’s gross. I don’t think I’ll forget this year because of how much fake blood I got on me. I still have blood on me from working Thursday night...and what is it Saturday now?

“It doesn’t come out easily,” Morgan adds. “There are too many nooks and crannies in the human body. And the blood finds them.”

The bloodshed should come as no surprise to fans. The storyline for this season, premiering at 9 p.m. on AMC, has been titled, “All Out War.” And it’s a showdown that’s overdue.

Negan's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) back for season 8 of "The Walking Dead," and he hasn't lost his mean streak.

(Gene Page/AMC)

Last season, “The Walking Dead” posted its lowest average ratings since 2012. (Don’t feel too bad for creator Robert Kirkman and producers: The series is still the highest-rated entertainment show on TV for five years running). Viewers seemed to both be devastated by the grisly murder of fan-favorite Glenn and impatient for Rick to stop simpering and start avenging his fallen friend.

“It was a painful season for everybody,” says British actor Andrew Lincoln, who stars as Rick Grimes. “It’s really cool to be reclaiming Rick who has been so demolished emotionally.

“I think that this season is a payoff to last year,” Lincoln adds. “We move quicker and cover more story per episode than we’ve ever done. The stunts, the explosions, the special effects have all jumped up a gear.”

Several major characters won’t be making it to Season 9 — and their identities, of course, are a closely guarded secret.

Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, is ready to kick butt in Season 8 of "The Walking Dead."

(Gene Page/AMC)

With Negan, the show has found its most fearsome villain to date — one that makes the sadistic Governor look more like a Cub Scout pack leader — in large part because of the charisma and menace brought by the 6-foot-2 Morgan. It can be seen in the few face-to-face scenes he shares with Lincoln.

Completely out of character, the actors send each other giddy texts when a new script comes in containing one of those scenes.

“I tend to swear a lot before a take,” Lincoln says of their chemistry. “And he kneed me in the nuts three days ago."

Morgan adds: "If we work together too much one of us is going to have to die, so they spread it out.”

Melissa McBride as Carol and Norman Reedus as Daryl in Season 8 of "The Walking Dead."

(Gene Page/AMC)

Part of the job description on “The Walking Dead” is bracing for approaching hordes — and not just the zombies.

But fan encounters are a little different for Lincoln, 44, and Morgan, 51.

“I went out for dinner last night here,” Lincoln said during the cast’s recent visit to New York Comic Con. “We (fellow cast-members Norman Reedus and Austin Amelio) were outside having a chat and these guys approached wanting selfies. People just say the sweetest things. It’s incredibly touching.”

Lennie James as Morgan in "The Walking Dead," Season 8.

(Jackson Lee Davis/AMC)

“I just walked out of the hotel to get into the car...and there’s a whole bunch of people dressed up like Negan with baseball bats outside,” Morgan said. “I still get people flipping me off all the time. People flip me off in the photos that we’re taking together. It’s a love/hate thing.”

But fans of the show, and of the comics on which the show is based on, have gotten attached to Negan and his barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille. Some have even forgiven him for bludgeoning Glenn, one of the highest-profile Asian characters on television at the time. Some.

“There was crazy mail for sure, some people have my death all planned out, not only as Negan but probably as Jeffrey Dean Morgan,” the actor says of the reaction to the controversial death scene in last season’s premiere.

And there’s the chance that Rick will be on the losing end of this “All Out War.”

Andrew Lincoln as Rick and Lauren Cohan as Maggie in the debut episode of Season 8 of "The Walking Dead."

(Gene Page/AMC)

“There comes a point where there are too many gray hairs on your chin,” says Lincoln, who had previously been known as a lover, not a fighter in “Love Actually” before signing on for “The Walking Dead.” “I think the audience deserves an end game.

“It’s a lot of time to invest in a story without some kind of resolution,” he adds. “If I was watching it I would want some answers, something, and if that means the demise of a central character or a principal character, then I’m willing to take the medicine.”